Because I'm Happy

The other morning Ava told Travis that she was happy and that she wanted to make others happy.  She went on to include names of family, friends, and her toys that she wanted to make happy.  Then today on her daily report that we receive from school the teacher wrote a note saying that Ava is a good friend, whenever one of her friends is sad Ava tries to make them happy again.  If Ava's one goal in life is to make others happy, then watch out because the world is about to become a better place.  

What a special little girl I am blessed to be the mother of.

Building Update

Last week they completed the roof and windows and also did the rough in for the plumbing.  I am not sure what they have planned this week for work but we are meeting the builders on Wednesday to do a walk through on where we want lighting and electrical.  Last week we finalized all of our appliances and doors.  We are 75% completed on our tile and are waiting on a sample for the kids shower surround and are waiting to finalize the granite to before we pick out the butlers pantry tile.  I LOVE the tile that we have picked out and once everything is signed off on, I will post pictures of what we are doing in each room.  For the granite we have picked out a quartzite for the wet bar and guest bath called Taj Mahal, it is gorgeous!  We also have a remnant picked out for the laundry room which is a grayish blueish and is also beautiful.  We are still working on the counters for the master and kids bath, kitchen, and butlers pantry.

I  am so happy with the progress and would move in now, I am so in love with this home!

 The only other house that is being built in our neighborhood currently is across the street and there are four more lots that will be completed after this.  I love the roof line that our neighbors are doing on their house, I have not walked through it yet but can't wait to see what they do to complete their home.

Princess Birthday Party

As a mother I love having Ava play dress up and was very excited that she was invited to a birthday party that was not only princess themed but encouraged children to dress up in costumes.  Ava has several tutu's but no real princess dresses so I bought her a Princess Sofia dress who is a Disney Junior Princess.  Ava had a Princess Sofia doll already along with a purple crown and wand so these went well with the dress.

This morning we told her that she got to get dressed up for a Princess party and then told her that Princess Ariel would be there.  Ava was so EXCITED to hear this and ran around the house for an hour talking all about Princess Ariel, it was the cutest thing!

Ava was so excited I could not get her to sit still for a picture.

At the party Ava enjoyed playing on the playground.

 Once Ariel arrived Ava was very shy.

 But warmed up for a picture with Ariel and even gave her a hug goodbye.

To top it off Ava had pizza and cake, this was her perfect day!

Mommy Fail

Ava has been doing great potty training and has been wearing her Disney Princess panties all week without any accidents including a long car ride to Columbia. This morning Travis took his car to the garage and even though it was a cold morning, we picked him up and went to the Zoo.

We had been there for an hour and had just finished playing in their jungle gym when we were about to see the animals. I mentioned to Ava that we should go and try and potty and that is when she stopped in her tracks, said she had to pee pee, and then spread her legs and we saw urine dripping out of her pants.

I took her to the restroom and realized I did not pack a change of clothes for her. I was hoping I could just take her panties off and put her in pull ups and then just pull her pants back on her but once I got them off they were so soaked including her socks so I could not put them back on. It was in the high 40's so we looked like the worst parents carrying Ava out of the Zoo in nothing but her pull ups, shirt, and jacket. To top it off we ran into one of her classmates family on the way out.

Note to self, when out in public while potty training always have a change of clothes on hand and ask every 5 minutes if they have to use the potty.

Britt James' Newborn Pictures

At nine days old we had our photographer come to our condo to take Britt's newborn pictures.  I was worried with the small  space that we would not have a enough room at our place to take them but Beth was able to set up in our living room and take some great pictures of Baby Britt.

My mother was still in town from the week of helping me with Britt so I had Beth take some pictures of her as well with the children.  Ava was not cooperating and while we managed to get a couple of pictures with her, we did not get the  family shots that I was hoping for.  Britt was a trooper and slept through most of it unlike Ava who was awake during her newborn photo's. 

Britt James, 8 weeks old

Another great week is in the books for Baby Britt.  He had his first road trip to Kingsport this past weekend and he did really well on the trip.  On past road trips with Ava when she was  an  infant I would stop to nurse her but I decided to have a bottle ready for Britt and feed him in his car seat.  This worked out well and made it so we were not on the road as long.

I am not wanting to jinx anything by saying this, but the past three nights Britt has dropped his 10:30pm feed and has been going up to 8 hours between his nighttime feedings!  I wish that he would keep his 10:30pm  feed and and drop his 3am feeding but I have learned  not to wake a sleeping baby and at least he is making progress at such a young age!  Since he HATES having a wet diaper, we switched to Pampers Baby Dry during the night which is more absorbent than the Pampers Swaddlers that he wears during the day and I think that this has really helped with his nighttime sleep.  During the day he is going 4 hours between  feedings which is also great to allow me to get out and run errands during this time.

Britt has started cooing a lot more and I can tell that he wants to talk to us so badly.  This morning I started singing to him and he looked up at me and gave me a precious little smile.  He has the best little temperament and is happy has long as he has a dry diaper and is feed.  He still enjoys his nightly bath time and being carried around in the Ergobaby. 

Loving on Uncle Chace in Kingsport

 Meeting Aunt Janet and Uncle Richard

Ava Marie- 2 1/2 years old!

Our sweet baby girl turned 2 1/2 and I have already gone ahead and reserved a date at My Gym for her Birthday party.  With all of the craziness that is going on I did not want to forget to do this so I went ahead and did it 6 months early!

Our little girl is growing up and is definitely all toddler right now.  She can do everything herself , or so she thinks, and is even wanting to pick out her own clothes some mornings.  The other day  she wanted to wear her ABC shirt, this is her pink Tennessee jersey and is her only shirt with letters on it.  She told me that her boy friend, Hudson, liked the ABC's so she wanted to wear her ABC shirt.  First off I find it hilarious that she says that someone likes the ABC's.  Secondly I find it frightening that she is already wanting to dress to impress a boy!

There are too many little things that Ava says or does to pin point my favorite.  Whenever I ask her how many she wants of anything, she tells me 2,3,4.  So I always ask her for 2,3,4 kisses!  She LOVES to sing and dance and thanks to my sister, her new favorite song is On a Good Ship Lollipop!  She has watched the You Tube video of Shirley Temple singing this a hundred times and she tries to mimic Shirley by changing her facial expressions.  Speaking of facial expressions, she has the pouty lip face down and uses it on us several times a day along with so many other cute faces.

Ava loves her toys and is so funny when it comes to her dolls and stuffed animals.  I have noticed that she plays with certain ones together and that she has formed them into certain groups that do not intermix.  She will play with her Disney Princess' together, then there are her Disney Junior Octonauts, and finally her stuffed animals.  She normally will only sleep with Minnie and Mickey Mouse but sometimes a special toy will get to join her in bed.

She is telling Neigh Neigh to smile in this picture.

 

She loves to go to the park and her favorite thing to do is swing and people watch. She enjoys watching other children play more than she enjoys playing herself.  The last couple of weeks she has been playing with bubbles and sidewalk chalk or sliding with children she does not know which makes me happy that she is comfortable enough to do this.  After having her bike in the kitchen all winter, one day she noticed it and now she wants us to take it to the park all of the time for her to ride on it.

Ava loves her family and knows that Aunt Mandy, Uncle Matt, Uncle Chace and Mimi all live in the same city.  Or that when she sees Nana she will also see Papa and that Molly and Nelson belong to Aunt Alissa.  Ava thinks that everyone lives in castles and always ask when we are driving home from school if we are going to Ava's castle and then when we pull in she yells "We're Home!" 

We have taught her a prayer to say at dinner and at bedtime.  For the dinner prayer she asks that we all hold hands and we often end up saying this prayer many times during the meal at her request.  At her bedtime prayers we pray for all of her family and then she will either mention her classmates, cartoon characters or ice cream!  Before we go to bed we always have story time but she often wants to read to us now instead of us reading to her. 

She still has her meltdown moments but as I say, it is tough to be 2!  Ava still continues to bring so much joy and always puts a smile on our face.  We are lucky to be the parents of such an amazing little girl.